Looking for the crowd

We have already entered Day Eight of the Olympics... hard to believe things pass so quickly. China is leading in the Gold count, Michael Phelps is breaking records left and right, and the proceedings (aside from one murder and occasional protests) have gone relatively smoothly for the event organizers here in China. One exception... seats at many Olympic venues have been empty and IOC officials have asked the Chinese government to do whatever they need to fill those seats.

This was something I noticed right away when attending soccer on Aug 7th, one day before the opening ceremony. While most seats in the lower section were filled, the upper section had significant gaps. There was also a large wing in the lower section of VIP seats that were almost entirely empty--this has been a recurring feature at other events as well. In the boxing gymnasium, one entire side of the arena is basically reserved for VIPs (press, Olympic officials, government officials, etc.). These seats are almost entirely empty. Even in sections where tickets were sold for fans, attendance has been sparse at all of the events I've attended... field hockey, boxing, beach volleyball. Meanwhile, outside scalpers are demanding prices of 2,000 yuan or higher for seats (these prices can often be negotiated down to a few hundred yuan. Not quite the people's games. In an effort to make things easier for tickets to get passed to fans, IOC officials have asked to ease up on some of their prisoner-of-war camp style barriers, which have sub-divided the Olympic village into a series of separate zones for each block of stadiums.

Lets try to catch up recent activities, starting with the night of the 10th, where I left you in my last post at the Tun Bar (not really a location you want to rest in for several days). As I drank my shooters, I was approached by a very effeminate waiter who asked me a series of quiz questions... How do you say silver and bronze medal in English? Who do you think will win more medals, China or America?

Fifteen minutes after arrival, with no signs of life appearing at the Tun, I decided to head out, where I discovered a pouring rain storm. I decided to make a dash through it to the main Sanlitun bar street. Arriving there soaked, I was invited into the first bar on the block... I stopped in for a beer. A pop-rock band that I assume was Filipino (speaking only of my personal experience, about 80 percent of the house rock bands in China are Filipino... Chinese ensembles tend to feature more karaoke-esque pop ballads) came onto the stage. There were three players alternating on vocals... a woman singer whose mid-riff was a bit too large for the attire she was wearing, an off-key keyboardist, and a guitar player who was the only one in the group who could actually sing. Swigging down the beer and escaping from that joint, I was on the street again, losing hope that I would find a place to watch the basketball game. I started up the street but could only get most of the way down the block because of incredible rain. I stopped under an awning for awhile, chatting with the doormen, then headed to the awning by the last bar, where the doorman convinced me to go in by an offer of a $2 beer ($2 is a standard price in China, but on Sanlitun most bars charge around $6 for a beer). Inside, I ran into a woman from Australia and a man from Fiji. They were trying to get to a bar called the Pavilion but the wait staff refused to tell them where it was, saying that could not help out a competitor. The Chinese soccer team was losing to Belgium on a TV screen. Meanwhile, the small bar provided it's own entertainment... first a belly dancer, than a go-go dancer (common in Chinese discos), then a Chinese pop trio doing vocals with keyboard backing. After nursing my beer, I gave up on finding a busy bar to catch a picture of people watching the basketball game (just starting as I left), and decided to catch it at home. The Chinese team did well in the first few minutes that I watched, Yao Ming leading with a nice three-point shot right off the bat and the Chinese team taking a lead, but by the time I got home the tide had changed... America had a 9-point lead but it was clear they were on their way to blowout.